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As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing driving licenses in Thailand specifically in the context of Thai Elite Visas. Now I want to preface this by saying I have only seen this and heard of this issue in an anecdotal context but I have talked to a number of folks who said they have had issues getting a 5-year driving license in Thailand because they had a Thailand Elite Visa. Apparently there is an issue in the Department of Land Transport wherein Thailand Elite Visa is not treated as a standard Non-immigrant Visa because in a way it really isn't a standard Non-immigrant Visa, it is kind of like a VIP long-term Tourist Visa and for that reason, and I don't know the internal regulations dictating this within the Department of Land Transport but I have had multiple people tell me they have had issues getting a 5-year driving license because they had an Elite Visa and they were only issued a 2-year driving license, again citing the fact that they had a Thailand Elite Visa. 

I don't exactly get it but every now and again, there are situations where Thai immigration law will interact in a very strange way with standard Thai Law and you will end up with these kind of scenarios where you can't get something because of a regulation or because a different government agency won't do that on that type of Visa. So I am not exactly surprised by this. I kind of liken it to the kind of paradox that comes up with those who set up Representative Offices here in Thailand and they don't need a Work Permit but then they deal with other folks in other agencies who aren't used to that and so they have problems dealing with other agencies because other agencies believe they need a Work Permit even though under a Representative Office structure, depending on who you are within the Rep. office you may not actually need an actual Work Permit. So again, it is just kind of one of these weird situations where sort of the Byzantine nature of both the Immigration apparatus and the regulation within a different Government Agency kind of conflict.